Chocolate Chip Life Lessons

There have been a couple of times in the last week that I have asked Charlotte to get something for me out of the garage. Each of these times she has been gone way longer than the time necessary to retrieve whatever I have asked for. When questioned she has gotten quiet and had a hard time telling me what it was she was doing. So I knew she was doing something she wasn't supposed to but I didn't know what. I also knew that she knew she was doing something she wasn't supposed to. I was a bit frustrated with her but didn't really have any recourse.

Last night Michael went to get something out of the refrigerator in the garage. He found mini chocolate chips all over the floor as well as spilled in the refrigerator itself. So now we knew.

This morning Charlotte and I had a little talk about what she was doing in the garage. It went something like this.

Me: Hey Charlotte, you know yesterday when you were in the garage and didn't want to tell me what you were doing?

Charlotte: Yes.

Me: I know what you were doing so do you want to tell me now.

Charlotte: (she was quite for a minute) I was playing with my bike (her story from the night before)

Me: That was all you were doing in the garage?

Charlotte: Yeah,

Me: So were you playing with your bike while you were eating chocolate chips ?

Charlotte's eyes got big. She really didn't think I knew. And she really thought she had covered her tracks well. I guess she didn't expect me to notice all of the spilled chocolate chips. Speaking of which, they were mini chips so at first glance they looked like rodent droppings. I was extremely relieve to find out they were not. Much better to have Charlotte sneaking food than rodents to deal with.

After I explained to her again the importance of telling the truth I sent her to her room to think about it a bit. Then while sitting on my bed for a minute reflecting on the incident I remembered an incident from my childhood.

In the summers my sister, two cousins and I all stayed with my grandmother during the days while our parents were at work. One day we were upstairs in the Junk Room looking around. We were not supposed to be in there. It was where my grandmother stored all kinds of things and not a room that had anything in it we needed. We came across her stash of chocolate chips. She makes the best chocolate chip cookies! We decided to eat some and ate probably a half a bag and then put them back where we found them. Some time later - in my mind it was a month or more but I honestly have no idea how long it was as I was probably 4-6 when this happened - Granny discovered the open bag of chocolate chips. She asked us if we knew anything about it. Our response, "Huh, it looks like you have mice, Granny!" Surprisingly it ended there and we didn't get in trouble but I'm sure she knew the names of all four of her little mice.

It is funny to see my child following so closely in her mother's footsteps.
Jenn